Sleep
by Sunlight through Leaves
Summary: When Break first arrives at the Rainsworth house, Liam accidentally stumbles into a lifelong trust. BreakxLiam/Reim


**Sleep**  
_Manga: Pandora Hearts_  
_Pairing: BreakxLiam_  
_Rating: K+_  
_Summary: When Break first arrives at the Rainsworth house, Liam accidentally stumbles into a lifelong trust._

The hallway stretched long and shadowed in front of him. Re-shelving the books Sharon had pulled out from the library in a fit of boredom earlier that day had taken far longer than he'd expected, but simply leaving them out had never crossed his mind.

A bass rumble and crack followed hard on the heels of a blinding flash of light, and Liam blinked away after images of suits of armor, candelabras and hanging tapestries. Seconds later, rain began to pound against the windows, driven hard by the wind swirling outside.

The storm that had been threatening to break all day had finally come.

Liam balled his fist and hurried down the hall. He didn't particularly dislike storms as there was no real rational reason for it, but in the lonely hall, lit only with the candle grasped in his hand and the periodic lightening that was most certainly getting closer, the storm seemed to take on a personality of its own.

In fact, he could almost hear a voice in the wind – a muffled whimper and possibly a gasp of pain. The noise rose as he passed a closed door on the right and faded away as he continued. He skidded to a stop.

The pained vocalizations issued from the room beyond, and Liam pulled his ear away from the gap in the doorframe. He took several steps away only to turn back – away again and back.

The man in the room beyond was not nearly as dangerous as he had been, but Liam's body still remembered the shove that was hard enough both to knock him to the floor and send his glasses on a skittering trip across the stones. His mind, however, remembered the pained expression and the blood and the fear that all supported the barrier between Xerxes Break and everyone else.

Because of that, Liam returned to the door on his third time around, grabbed the handle and slipped inside, setting his candle on the table just beyond the door. As he crossed the floor, he was torn between attempting to keep quiet and making as much noise as possible. If Break was asleep, he didn't want to wake him, certain that his presence in Break's room would not be welcome, but he in no way wanted Break to recognize a clandestine presence and react as he undoubtedly would. On that second thought, he decided that he'd much prefer an angry Break to a murderous Break any day and walked normally to the edge of the bed.

Break was curled in on himself with one hand clasped over the bandages covering the empty socket of his left eye. His throat worked periodically, drawing air in short, shallow breaths. Some of the older servants insisted they could tell if a storm was coming based on how much their joints and scars hurt, and Break seemed to be suffering in the same manner.

A choked exhale turned into an outright whimper right before a flash of lightening, and Liam jumped backwards as the fleeting light reflected off a red iris partially obscured by the pillow, but most certainly focused on him. He attempted to step backwards, but Break was faster and a hand snagged his wrist, holding him fast. _I'm only eleven. _Liam's thoughts chased each other through his head. _I'm going to die, and I'm only eleven._ In the sixth months since Break had appeared before the Abyssal gate, Liam had never seen him show weakness. Anger, yes. Self-destruction, yes. But weakness? No. Now that he'd seen Break humbled by pain, Liam had no doubt he would be killed for his trespassing.

The grip on his wrist pulled him forward. _He's probably got a knife under his pillow. But he won't want blood on the bed, so maybe when he moves…maybe I can…maybe…_ "Oof." It wasn't what he'd intended to say. He'd intended to beg for his life, to apologize and to promise that he would take Break's secret to the grave, but the bed was surprisingly soft, and he hadn't exactly been expecting to be yanked down onto it nor have the covers tossed over him.

Break lay on his side, tugging Liam tight against his chest and folding arms and legs around Liam's much smaller frame.

His presence seemed to ease the tension in Break's body, but perhaps anyone's presence might have done that. He'd probably never know what incident in Break's past caused this behavior. Maybe he'd had a stuffed animal as a child. The image swam to the front of his mind, and the general ridiculousness of it made him giggle uncontrollably.

"Noisy." Break grumbled and tugged his glasses off his face. "Go to sleep."

The bed was empty when he woke and only the fact that he was still in Break's room convinced him that it was not some bizarre dream brought on by lack of sleep and impending puberty.

OOOOOOO

A chill wind blew across Liam's shoulders, but deep familiarity with this particular situation kept him from reaching over and yanking the covers back around him. He did hiss when Break's cold hands contacted his arm and begrudgingly rolled onto his back when Break pulled at him. "Really, Xerxes? I would have thought you'd outgrown this."

"Ah, but you forget that I've stopped growing." Break wrestled around for several exaggerated minutes. "I'd rather say that you've outgrown this. You used to be smaller than me." He finally flopped down with his back pressed against Liam's side. This lasted for only a couple of seconds before he sat up, punched the pillow a couple of times and lay down with his arm slung over Liam's stomach.

"I'm getting you a stuffed animal tomorrow."

Break smiled into Liam's shoulder, completely unconcerned. After ten years, that particular threat had long since lost its vehemence.

OOOOOOO

I'm always on the search for new manga, and I just found Pandora Hearts. Absolutely wonderful manga! Complicated story, beautiful art, and a bunch of characters that I have gotten utterly attached to already...^^;

After I got to the most recent chapters, I absolutely fell in love with Break and Liam/Reim (no spoilers, but holy hell! Loved the last couple of chapters). Anyway, I really wanted to write something about them, but... well, I think I've truly mussed up their characters.

Liam seems to hold a special place of trust in Break's world (which is quite unique), so I kind of wanted to take a shot at how that might have started. Especially since we've seen how Break reacted to Liam the second time they encountered each other in the manga.


End file.
